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Welcome to the Long Magenta Line
Congratulations and Welcome to the LONG MAGENTA LINE!
Muskingum celebrated its 176th Undergraduate Commencement
with three socially-distanced, in-person ceremonies on Friday, May 7 and Saturday, May 8, 2021. Graduates received their Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees.
Chair of the Board of Trustees Dr. Kim Gage Rothermel ’71 presented the Trustees’ Charge to the graduates. Muskingum legacy Zoey Stenson ’21 and Jennifer McKinney Stenson ’96. As Senior Class Representative, Zoey presented the Students’ Charge to her classmates.
Coach, educator, and University Trustee Darrell Hazell ’86 received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree and addressed the graduates as principal speaker.
Dr. Hazell encouraged the graduates to go out of their way to find value in people and to uplift and empower others. He highlighted the importance of being willing to ask for help from others and to extend opportunities to people who need second chances.
Throughout his career, Dr. Hazell has had significant impact upon others as a football coach, mentor, educator, and student advocate. He served for more than three decades at the collegiate and professional levels, before retiring after the 2018 season as the Wide Receivers Coach for the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings.
Prior to joining the NFL, he served as an NCAA Division I Head Football Coach for Purdue University and Kent State University. He held assistant football coaching positions at The Ohio State University, the United States Military Academy at West Point (Army), West Virginia University, Rutgers University, Western Michigan University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hazell earned his Muskingum Bachelor of Arts degree in Business and Speech Communication. He was inducted into the University’s Athletics Hall of Fame, in recognition of his accomplishments as a varsity student-athlete. He held University records for the most receptions (132) and receiving yards (1,966) until 2013, earned multiple football All-Ohio Athletic Conference honors, served as the football team's captain, and won multi-year letters in track.
He has served Muskingum as a member of the University’s Board of Trustees since 2019. He and his wife Annemarie are the parents of a son, Kyle Hazell.
To view Dr. Hazell’s remarks or the Undergraduate Ceremony, visit muskingum.edu/commencement.
Charge to the Class from the Faculty
Dr. Kekoa Kaluhiokalani, Associate Professor of English, and the recipient of the University’s highest teaching honor, the William Oxley Thompson Award for Excellence in Teaching, delivered the Commencement ceremony’s Charge from the Faculty:
Class of 2021,
At some point, you learned about the long magenta line: The roster of Muskingum graduates who went forth, Shined brightly, and made this University proud.
In the visible spectrum, magenta exists midway between red and blue; It is the color of balance and opposite ends meeting halfway. But curiously, magenta has no wavelength; it’s a product of mind and imagination, The expression of the human desire to seek and to create beauty.
Today you join that line, and so we gift you this colorful charge: Think of the long magenta line as a bright ribbon of energy, infinitely elastic Ablaze with the energy of this institution.
One end of the line will forever anchor you to these hills and these halls. The other is a beacon to brighten the lives of those you serve, It is a badge that proclaims: “I am a Muskingum graduate; I am here to help.”
Like magenta, let the title “Muskingum graduate” be a synonym for The spirit of balance and compromise, of imagination and finding beauty; May you “Muskingum-ize” the world, wherever you go and with whomever you meet, And may you wrap the globe in the enlightening glow of your magenta lines.
We love you. We will miss you. Be good. Make us proud.
– Dr. Kekoa Kaluhiokalani
Dr. Kekoa Kaluhiokalani
Graduate Commencement
Inaugural Master of Occupational Therapy Degrees Granted
Muskingum’s 29th Graduate Commencement was held virtually on May 6, 2021.
Educator and leader Tami Bowling Fitzgerald ’81, ’98G was the principal speaker. She was presented with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
“Muskingum University positively influenced my life in many ways, setting me on the path of stepping forward and being a leader,” Dr. Fitzgerald said. She earned both her Bachelor of Science degree and her Master of Education degree from Muskingum.
She challenged the Class of 2021 to step forward, to lead, and to abide by three guiding principals in serving others:
“Stay thirsty – always strive to go higher.”
“Fail forward and propel through challenges.”
Dr. Fitzgerald shared that “I was really anxious about today because I have Bell’s Palsy. But I am here. I showed up and I am propelling forward through this challenge. I am owning it, I am growing from it, and I am not letting the palsy define me or own me.” A National Board Certified Teacher and State of Ohio Master Teacher, Dr. Fitzgerald taught science for 34 years at West Muskingum High School. She has shared her knowledge with Muskingum students, teaching a variety of education courses as an adjunct professor for the University.
She has served as a Teaching Ambassador Fellow at the U.S. Department of Education, helped develop a STEM Mentoring Café program with the U.S. Departments of Education and Energy, and represented science teachers at the White House STEM Master Teacher Corps Roundtable. She is also active in her field’s professional organizations, currently serving as the Director of Engagement and Mobilization for the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. Her many honors include the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
Dr. Fitzgerald and her husband Dave enjoy spending time with their family of five children – Adam (Shannon), Mark (Alex), Emily (Ryan), Sarah (Charlie), and Andrew – and six grandchildren.
To watch the Graduate Ceremony, visit muskingum.edu/graduatecommencement.
Dr. Tami Bowling Fitzgerald ’81, ’98G with President Susan S. Hasseler.
The first Master of Occupational
Therapy graduates in the University’s history received their degrees during the ceremony. The longstanding degrees of Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Education, and Master of Strategy, Systems and Technology programs were also granted to members of the Graduate Class of 2021.
